This is a 1906 DWM (Deutsche
Waffen und Munitions Fabriken) Swiss Imperial Navy This
piece is a 8
inch (200 mm) barreled 7.65mm with the Navy adjustable rear sight and
commercial unmarked magazine. This Luger is truly a dichotomy.

So
what do we have here? At first inspection you would think this is 1906
Commercial Navy that was sent to Switzerland and they installed an eight
inch 7.65 barrel.

The serial
number is a 3 digit military series with an "a", so it is very early
production. Only unlettered through block "b" are know to follow the
transition guns with the locking toggle.

Anyone
who has collected Lugers for any amount of time has come to understand the
Luger rule that in Lugers there are no rules.

The first toggle link is marked
with the DWM logo. There is the two-position (100-200m) sight on the rear
toggle link and the last two digits of the serial number also appear.

Serial number placement is in the civilian ("hidden") style.
The serial number appears on the front of the frame, on the bottom
of the locking bolt, on the locking bolt lug, on the trigger, the
bottom of the side plate, and under the first toggle and the rear
sight

Now
we have a 'Germany' on the side of the receiver, not inconsistent with a
commercial Luger, but above that are the Marinen Crown over M stamps of a
military issue.

Could this be a commercial Navy converted
to a military model due to the know shortages in supplying the initial
Navy contract as noted in the January 1906 letter of the
Reishs-Marine-Ampt to DWM in Berlin?

.

Probably not, because if it were a
commercial gun on the shelf it would have had the Crown N commercial nitro
proof where the Marinen proofs are now visible.

This Luger has
all matching numbers. The finish is 98+% Blued and
98+% straw blued ; the
model has a hold open latch and stock lug. The magazine is a commercial
unmarked magazine, (probably installed by the Swiss who didn't number
their magazines.

In August 1904 the
German Navy underwent testing of 5, 9mm Selbstladepistolem Model 1904 from
DWM. The trial was successful and in September 1904 the Navy asked the
Kriegsministerium to order 2,000 Model 1904 navy pistols as soon as
possible. Thus began to first acceptance of the 'Luger' by the
German military. The 1904 Navy incorporated the new coil mainspring,
the new extractor with the loaded-chamber markings. These
"improvements" were underway during the testing an acceptance of the navy
model.

This is an extraordinary
Luger, with a lot of history and probably a one of one Navy with Marinen
proofs, Swiss Cross and 8" 7.65mm barrel. Sometimes we just have
to wish it could talk.

In February 1910 the Secretary of State
of the Reichs-Marine-Amt issued an order that all Naval units were to
mark all Pistolen 1904 with consecutive weapon numbers within a
particular naval unit (letter size 2.5mm) in addition to the unit stamp
prescribed by letter of November 1907.

W.K. represented the Werft zu Kiel and
were issued to units in the Baltic Sea Station, Marinenstation der
Ostsee. This would be the 1,912 pistol of the Kiel dockyard.

W.W. represented the Werft zu
Wilhemshaven and were issued to unit of the North Sea Marinenstation
der Nordsee.

This Navy has the thumb
safety marked Gesichert but it is the lower position. In 1912 the
order was issued to recall all the 1904 Model (as know to the German
Navy) and change the safety from down to up. These are know as the 1st
Issue Unaltered. Very RARE!

Here we see again the extended 200 meter
rear sight and the thumb safety in the original Unaltered position.
Approximately 8000 were made in 1906 and these were all called back to be
altered in 1912.

Here we can appreciate the classic beauty
of the pencil thin barrel.

Our Theory: This
Luger started out as a first Issue Navy and was assigned to the Kiel
dockyards where it was unit marked. When these were recalled in 1912 based
on the June 1912 order to change the safety from down to up the gun was
then stamped "Germany" for export and sold to the Swiss. They rolled
the Swiss Cross on the chamber and installed the 200cm barrel in 7.65mm
which was the standard cartridge for the Swiss. It may have been issued or
was just used for testing, we don't know.

The inside of the gun is clean with no
evidence or pitting or rust. It has been cared for many years. This
gun is an exceptional Luger being in such fine shape and bearing all the
correct proofs and markings to make it a story-book "Navy".

This Luger might be a one of
one making it a must have for the serious Navy or Swiss collector.
Truly collector quality.

NOTICE

Photographs are
copyrighted, all rights reserved, any extraction, reproduction or
display of gun pictures without the express consent of the Phoenix
Investment Arms is strictly prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation.

References

See Görtz,
The Navy Luger
See Jan Still, Imperial Lugers P 159

See Kenyon Lugers at Random Page
150.

This is a probable one-of-one Swiss Luger variation in this
extraordinarily fine condition.